Tragedy Strikes; Notre Dame Somehow Chooses Honolulu Over Houston

The commenters have had a lot of fun dismissing the euphoria that we felt at the idea that the storied and awesome Notre Dame football team might actually come to Houston for the first time in 35 years, to play in the Texas Bowl.

Some people think a 6-6 ND team is not very good; what they fail to realize is that the Irish were 3-9 the previous season, so the improvement has been immense. Percentage-wise, at least.

It's all a moot point anyway, since the Irish -- given the choice after Arizona beat Arizona State Saturday -- opted to go to the Hawaii Bowl over the Texas Bowl. (The Texas Bowl gets Western Michigan!!)We're sure the naysayers will claim it was because they were afraid to play Rice. Or maybe they hoped that their loss to Hawaii would fly under the radar because it's so far away.

But we just can't figure out what Honolulu offers that Houston doesn't.

Maybe they just needed the miles.

However, we are not losing hope; in fact, we are fully confident that ND will have a Texas-Bowl-worthy season next year, too.